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Bupe Buprenorphine Withdrawals

I've been on both suboxone, and methadone maintenance,
In the past 6 years, I've become addicted to first morphine, then oxy, then heroin. (Morphine oddly enough being my DOC)

Well, I've tapered off of suboxone over 3 times. Right now is my 4th time using suboxone, and I am currently on maintenece, I get to decide when to come down and how much I want to take.

Suboxone w/d isn't as in your face as Heroin Or OC, but it does have quite a bit more symptoms that aren't as severe...just, LONG.

And , as it has been said already, the longer you take the suboxone, the worse the withdrawal, If you use Suboxone for a year, 24 mg, and start to taper, you better bet you'll feel a bit of withdrawal.

(3 months Clean here..)
 
Not to scare you but I have quit suboxone after 8mg a day for a year and It's not fun.. At all.. And don't take little opiates like painpills or something to help, cuz for me it just made things worse. Even loperamide is just a way to prolong the withdrawals. I mean, yeah loperamide helps, but are you gonna buy 72 anti diarrhea pills every couple times a week? No thanks.. And once you run out of the loperamide, here come the wds knockin again, worse than ever. Just tough it out and avoid any kind of opiates until Its all over. Xanax could help, but thats another ballgame with even worse outcomes than opiates if your not careful.

Its been almost a month now and I'm still feeling some wds like RLS, Diarrhea, Depression, Anxiety, and Insomnia. Suboxone really hangs on to your receptors. Smoke a lot of pot.. Alchohol helps temporarily.

I'm not at all trying to bitch or moan, I'm just sayin, be a man.. Thats the only option. hehe

*By the way, I tapered to a tiny dose.
 
When I came off heroin my first time I found out I have allergic reactions to Suboxone.

My experience with those pills was so horrible because I was goin through wd's ontop of the allergic reactions.

Never was on them long enough to experience the withdrawl, but heard it could be pretty rough with prolonged use.
 
ull most likely be totally fine since u have such a low dose of .5mgs...

the worst that will happen to u is u might have a kinda sick like a cold feeling for a few days thatll linger..

but its nothing, mental part of it will be worse (but it seems like ur fine mentally) so ur probably gonna have the most minimal WDs... i think/hope
 
I have been on sub for a couple of months. I started with 16mg but only for a couple of days. After reading this forum I started injecting it in tiny amounts, probably less than .50 a day. I used a micron filter and dissolved the sub in sterile water. I ran out a week ago and the first 2 days were terrible. RLS day and night, back ache, flu llke-symptoms, it sucked. I could not sleep even though I took 2mg xanax, (I usually take .25mg) and OTC sleeping meds. Nothing would help me sleep!!! Finally I started running sterile water thru my old micro filters and injecting that. I have no idea what or how much I was getting but it did have a faint orange color so there has to be something there. The w/d's stopped. I would love to get off this stuff and cant believe how awful the w/d's were with such a tiny dose that I was using. I've been dope sick, and had w/d's from lots of other opiates but was not expecting this from sub! Any advice?
 
I have been on sub for a couple of months. I started with 16mg but only for a couple of days. After reading this forum I started injecting it in tiny amounts, probably less than .50 a day. I used a micron filter and dissolved the sub in sterile water. I ran out a week ago and the first 2 days were terrible. RLS day and night, back ache, flu llke-symptoms, it sucked. I could not sleep even though I took 2mg xanax, (I usually take .25mg) and OTC sleeping meds. Nothing would help me sleep!!! Finally I started running sterile water thru my old micro filters and injecting that. I have no idea what or how much I was getting but it did have a faint orange color so there has to be something there. The w/d's stopped. I would love to get off this stuff and cant believe how awful the w/d's were with such a tiny dose that I was using. I've been dope sick, and had w/d's from lots of other opiates but was not expecting this from sub! Any advice?

At the risk of sounding cliche, my first piece of advice would be to not use Suboxone intravenously. I understand you maximize your dose(s) this way, as the parenteral ROA will more or less provide 100% bioavailability, but this only reinforces the very behaviour you are attempting to free yourself of, right? Or perhaps you are merely trying to maintain until you can obtain your DOC? Either way, I'm sorry you got the idea to inject your Bupe from this site, as I'm sure many, if not most of us who are interested in promoting harm reduction would advise against doing so.
 
I have been on sub for a couple of months. I started with 16mg but only for a couple of days. After reading this forum I started injecting it in tiny amounts, probably less than .50 a day. I used a micron filter and dissolved the sub in sterile water. I ran out a week ago and the first 2 days were terrible. RLS day and night, back ache, flu llke-symptoms, it sucked. I could not sleep even though I took 2mg xanax, (I usually take .25mg) and OTC sleeping meds. Nothing would help me sleep!!! Finally I started running sterile water thru my old micro filters and injecting that. I have no idea what or how much I was getting but it did have a faint orange color so there has to be something there. The w/d's stopped. I would love to get off this stuff and cant believe how awful the w/d's were with such a tiny dose that I was using. I've been dope sick, and had w/d's from lots of other opiates but was not expecting this from sub! Any advice?

There's a few tricks I've done to get the withdrawals down to a minimal. First off, the most effective way to start at the higher doses (4mg +) is to fourth the dose on a weakly basis and one you get below this level, the relative gap can increase to taking off thirds every week. After this, there is a stage of bringing the withdrawals down that I don't hear people saying too much or putting too much emphasis on, so I'll tell you what I found to work well. Instead of taking the drug everyday, I would skip days, which was key to speeding up the process. One distinguishable thing about suboxone from other opiates is the half life. The half life averages at a span of 36 hours, which is greater than a day period, so if you take it every day, there is going to be a build up of suboxone in your system, and that in turn can boost up your tolerance higher than you perceive yourself doing; you can maintain the same dose every day and build up higher levels of it in your system each day. Now if you have been doing it every day you should taper down in the the 1mg echelon of doses and start delaying the dosages to a 48hr period, bringing the levels your taking to the actual levels you see yourself getting. The delay effect can further help you by spacing out the days further, say to two days or even one and a half days, once you get thoroughly comfortable with the single day spacing, which should be around a length of two weeks. Throughout this process my dosage averaged at a constant level of a mg each time (.5mg used to tease me to do more after a while because I never felt comfortable with it, even after longer than a week of doing it), so instead of lowering the dose at this level, I spaced out the days. Again, I highly recommend people trying to get off suboxone to try this method out. I'm currently back on suboxone, but I don't do it every day anymore. When I go a few days without doing some the only withdrawals symptoms I get are more reminiscent to PAWS than the acute stages, though I do yawn a lot and notice some GI loosening symptoms, but nothing hellish, just annoying. Finally, to the author of the above quoted text: I'm not sure if you're still trying to get off, or got off, but if you ever get into the situation you described above try keeping yourself on it, but spacing it out. I do agree that the withdrawals are in the magnitude of opiate agonist withdrawals, and even worse in parts of the psychological aspect because of the longer withdrawal duration (it took weeks for me to feel pleasure the same way no matter which way I stopped it-- PAWS is synonymous with depression). I hope anyone out there reading this that is frustrated with tapering will consider this method, though I have to admit it did take a little bit of training to get myself off the daily cycle. Treat getting off the daily routine with urgency once you get the dose down, and you will be able to make.
 
good info in here guys.

personally i used suboxone simply to avoid getting dope sick and then once i started taking them i just decided to quit my 350-400mg hydocodone habit altogether because i was actually enjoying the feeling of NOT being high all day and thought it was as good a time as any to quit. i only took the suboxone for 3 days, cutting my dose in half everyday starting at 16mg. i realize that's a pretty high dose of bupe but it was what i needed in order to not feel shitty. so last sunday i took the last 4mg. monday and tuesday were fine but then wednesday i started to feel the WDs. everything except no problems with the shits which is surprising considering how i usually am coming off opiates.

been taking benzos at night to sleep although wednesday and thursday nights i didn't get any sleep at all even with the benzos. always the worst part of WD for me is the insomnia just because of the way it effects me both physically and mentally. it's just extremely frustrating more than anything.

anyway so here i am on day 7 of no subs (again i took them for 3 days starting at 16mg cut in half each day) and i think i may just be past the worst of it. yesterday was hell although i've had worse when going cold turkey. just constant skin crawling, aches, the works. today i woke up feeling better. i hope it lasts though as i have to get back to work tomorrow and don't wanna look all strung out like i was looking yesterday.
 
oh and i've also had a few weird hallucinations or half-awake moments like the other night my gf was hanging out with me and i just started calling her cat's name, i thought i saw him walking across the end of the bed. we weren't even at her apartment. then yesterday she called me and the first thing i asked her was what she wanted on her hotdog. seriously, the strangest kind of sensation i've felt. snapping out of a short dream state. it actually worried my gf, she thought i was going crazy but i'm sure it's just the WDs combined with multiple sleepless nights.
 
I've found the withdrawls not anything compared to full opiate agonists, not saying they aren't there....but its more annoying than completely devestating....like I couldn't even go to class when I ran out of opies, with sub dopesick or not you can manage a day, not the funnest but whatever.

But, my dosage has never been over 4 mg and Ive never stopped for more than a week, some people say it gets progressively worse for two weeks, I may have missed peak misery.
 
I know its an old thread, but I wouldn't put myself into that situation in the first place.

NO WAY IN HELL would I go overseas with a habit and no script.
 
yeah bro, I can answer this question pretty well for you.. pretty sure you have already gone through the withdrawal and everything since this thread is somewhat old. Well, luckily for you, you tapered pretty nicely off the suboxone. Good job on that man, I was at 8MG a day for around 5 months, then I have a problem when im on opiates of any kind its really hard for me to pee, and The dickhead sub doctor made me take a drug test with somebody directly starting at my weener while I would pee in the cup. Well after trying like 6 different days to do this, I couldn't. And he refused to allow me to take a blood test or a hair follacle test, or even allow me to strip naked before going into the closed door bathroom to take the pee test. So as a result, he counted me as positive for drugs ( REALLY FUCKED UP thing is I was absolutely clean, not even weed in my system), and I was "tapered" off 8mg a day down to 0mg a day in less than 2 weeks. It was like 10 days down to 0 MG. Well I had some HORRENDOUS withdrawals from this, And the funny thing is my doctor told me if I followed his "taper" schedule during those 10 days, I would feel NO withdrawals... this sub doctor was just stupid, its like you knew nothing about the medicine. So of course I relapsed during the withdrawals.... relapsed back on black tar heroin... Well today is sunday, and last wednesday I enrolled in the methadone maintenance program at the clinic that is like 15 minutes from my house. Best decision I have ever made, Its only 15 minutes from my house (sub doctor was 45 minutes away), its WAYYYY CHEAPER. Only 55 dollars a week, so around 200 a month, sub doctor was like 200 for him to write the script, then like 12 dollars a pill. The methadone is also WAY more effective at stabilizing me and killing my cravings, plus I think the withdrawal is just as bad for suboxone as it is for methadone. But anyways, You should not feel horrendous withdrawals from the amount to tapered to on the suboxone. And the most important thing I wanted to address was the whole loperamide myth that everyone says. I have heard people call it the "poor mans methadone" and stuff like that. Well let me tell you, It is NOTHING like real methadone man. People say that if you take enough loperamide that it will take you out of withdrawal, this is absolutely false. I took ALOT of loperamide when I was withdrawaling from heroin before i could get into the MMT clinic, And it does NOTHING for the withdrawal symptoms. Only thing it does is help out with diarrhea and some of the digestive tract problems you have... It only works on your opiate receptors in your digestive tract, so don't think your going to be able to take loperamide and everything will be cool
 
Jumping off the sub

I habe been on 6 mgs for 2 months. I am about ready to come down. I read such conflicting info on this. I know when I tough it out a few days, I yawn and feel lethargic. I have to do this eventually. I am open to advice as well. The most logical thing I have heard is the taper. Someone suggested I wait long enough until I am feeling w/d and go back to a small amount of my doc. I dont agree with that nor will I do it. Why go back to the enemy that started this hellish journey(not taking the responsibility from myself)
 
After 2 months ur w/d shouldn't be that long. How long? Who knows. Sub has a pretty long half life. Worst w/d should be something around days 4-8 and then start getting better from there for u. Taper might make it better. Drop 2mg every 3rd day and once u get to 2 drop 0.5 mg until u get to 0.5mg then stop.

I stopped using sub w/ tramadol. I went to a detox and told them to put me on that instead of sub. U can also probably get it from a doctor as its not scheduled. I was on tramadol for 7 days in the detox and then a few more days at home. Then I stopped and used benzos and ambien as my only w/d symptoms by then were insomnia and RLS, both very mild but annoying and lasted a week or so.

Dunno if this will help u. I had a hard time stopping sub on its own and I came up with the idea of trying tramadol as its weaker and short acting. I wasn't feeling great when taking the tramadol but had no w/d either and when I stopped the tramadol I pretty much skipped the whole sub w/d thing and went right to the end. Felt like the time on the tramadol didn't prolong my w/d, just cover them enough to get through them. Sub w/d would have lasted 2-3 weeks for me. I feel like the tramadol took care of the first 2 weeks and when I stopped I didn't go back in progress but was at the end of the 2 weeks as if I didn't take the tramadol. It was the easiest w/d I've ever experienced and the first one I successfully got through into total non opiate state.
 
I last WD'd off Subutex about 6 months ago - I jumped off at just 0.2mg a day, and still felt like UTTER SHIT for a fortnight.

Not nice at all.
 
this thread has been kind of helpful - im planning on tapering soon. Well, I kind of already am.

I've been on 2mg/day of Sub for a little over 2 years. Back over the Summer I got down to 1 mg/day. Now I'm doing 0.5 to 1mg/day. I have 5 8MG pills left and I want this to be the end of it. I'm going to get down to 0.25/day this week - which will be tough solely because its hard to 'measure' that dosage when I'm breaking up 8 MG pills.

I've been fairly lucky with Sub. I had a doctor at a clinic that was just writing me prescriptions every visit ; I didn't have to pay these atrocious fees I've read about. I'd visit for 10-15 minutes, get the script, and my insurance would cover all but $35 for a 60 pills. I'm hoping that my luck with continue with Sub and this taper won't be too hard. I've gone through Oxy withdrawal enough times; theres been days I've forgot to take my Sub dose and I've been able to get through them a fuck of a lot easier as I would when I was going through Oxy withdrawals.

I'm thinking of picking up some immodium just to help with the stomach stuff - can this actually PROLONG the withdrawal process when I finally kick?

My taper method is going to be every day this week on 0.25
Next week alternating 0.25 and 0.125 every other day
0.125 every day the following week
and the week after that I'll do 0.125 every other day and continue from there

Is this too quick? I have enough to stretch that out a little longer . I have 5 8mg pills left
 
haha i literally went through the SAME thing. i took 1 (8mg) suboxone and made it last for a week. then i flew to bangladesh (with a stop in Abu Dhabi) and spent the night at a Hotel. I felt okay until nighttime, that when i got the hot flashes/chills annoyingness.

i took such a low dose of suboxone but it took exactly 4 days to get rid of the withdrawal. albeit it wasn't nearly as bad as dope withdrawal - it still included anxiety, constant thinking of dope, cravings, temperature problems, sleep problems (jetlag too).

but now that its 4 days later I feel great!
and i'm also in a country full of (cheaper) heroin than america would ever have.
hopefully i wont convince myself to get some. it isn't easy - that i can promise.
 
My experience:
Tapering from 12 to 8 to 6 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1.5 to 1 mg...almost no noticeable symptoms at all.

1 mg to 0.75 mg: simple.
0.75 mg to 0.5 mg: have an urge to take more, some anxiety, mood not as great, and a bit amotivational at times. Feel normal again after 3 weeks at 0.5 mg.
0.5 to 0.25 mg: restless legs, eyes & nose constantly running, sneezing, and some insomnia & broken sleep (ambien works though). Annoying, but not a disabling withdrawal...you'll be able to go to work/school. About 12 days after dropping, the w/d symptoms have mostly gone away. That's where I'm at now in my taper.

I've jumped off from 1 mg in the past, and I didn't find it mild at all. Detoxing from 40mg oxycodone is much easier, in my experience. I think its still too much for your brain to adjust to and just increases your chances of relapsing. I really think its best to slowly taper to very low doses and get adjusted to each decrease. Call me a pussy if you want, but we all know withdrawal really sucks. Why not minimize it as much as possible? The withdrawal should be a hell of a lot easier from .125 mg than 1 mg. Some people seem to have bad withdrawals from Suboxone, others think its way easier than comparable doses of full agonists. Quitting drugs all depends on the person...I thought quitting smoking was a walk in the park but I see other people who kicked heroin but say its too hard to quit smoking.
 
My experience:
Tapering from 12 to 8 to 6 to 4 to 3 to 2 to 1.5 to 1 mg...almost no noticeable symptoms at all.

1 mg to 0.75 mg: simple.
0.75 mg to 0.5 mg: have an urge to take more, some anxiety, mood not as great, and a bit amotivational at times. Feel normal again after 3 weeks at 0.5 mg.
0.5 to 0.25 mg: restless legs, eyes & nose constantly running, sneezing, and some insomnia & broken sleep (ambien works though). Annoying, but not a disabling withdrawal...you'll be able to go to work/school. About 12 days after dropping, the w/d symptoms have mostly gone away. That's where I'm at now in my taper.

I've jumped off from 1 mg in the past, and I didn't find it mild at all. Detoxing from 40mg oxycodone is much easier, in my experience. I think its still too much for your brain to adjust to and just increases your chances of relapsing. I really think its best to slowly taper to very low doses and get adjusted to each decrease. Call me a pussy if you want, but we all know withdrawal really sucks. Why not minimize it as much as possible? The withdrawal should be a hell of a lot easier from .125 mg than 1 mg. Some people seem to have bad withdrawals from Suboxone, others think its way easier than comparable doses of full agonists. Quitting drugs all depends on the person...I thought quitting smoking was a walk in the park but I see other people who kicked heroin but say its too hard to quit smoking.
Yeah, it's the last few hundred mcg's which always are the hardest to stop using.
 
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